Rappers love referring to the Pablo Escobar.  But only one rapper was good buddies with the late cocaine king.

Vanilla Ice.

Vanilla said he hung out with Escobar "many times" during the high-flying early 90s after they bonded over a mutual love of speed boats.

"They would land helicopters in my house constantly, on Star Island," Ice claimed during a chat with VladTV. “Come into my house, I had food just for them in the refrigerators. … They would take me in the helicopter, we'd go to these great events and race boats and look at all the cool stuff that they were making. And I never questioned, we didn’t have Google. I don’t know who these people are. I thought they were businessmen. They like to race boats like I did.”

Ice said he didn't realize Escobar -- who he described as a "great guy" -- was a drug kingpin until the FBI questioned him over the Colombian.

Escobar was killed in 1993, ending their relationship.